The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Ipomoea plant, botanically known as Ipomoea batatas, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Kyuikukan 5’.
The new Ipomoea plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventors in Miyazaki, Japan. The objective of the breeding program is to create new compact, freely branching trailing-type Ipomoea cultivars with attractive foliage shape and coloration.
The new Ipomoea plant originated from an open-pollination made by the Inventors in June, 2001 of a proprietary selection of Ipomoea batatas identified as code number KOP99205-1, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with an unknown selection of Ipomoea batatas as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Ipomoea was discovered and selected by the Inventors as a single plant within the progeny of the stated open-pollination in a controlled greenhouse environment in Miyazaki, Japan in 2001.
Asexual reproduction of the new Ipomoea by terminal cuttings in a controlled greenhouse environment in Miyazaki, Japan since the spring of 2002, has shown that the unique features of this new Ipomoea plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.